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Friday Fives – rock star deaths

Another rock star died today, and by his own hand… again. It’s time to have the talk. The big talk. The one your dad was supposed to have with you when you were 12… but he was afraid to. So, instead he just told your mom that you two had ‘the talk’ and just bought you a Penthouse from that 7-11 over at 44th & Camelback? You know, ‘scary Larry worked there overnights?’ Dude was LEGEND, and would sell ciggies and Mickey’s Big Mouth beers to anyone as long as there were no other customers in the store.

Or… am I being too specific? So let’s just finally have that ‘talk’. The ‘talk’ about rock stars dying.

ok, let’s get into it, shall we?

Kurt Cobain – do you think Courtney was involved?

No. I wouldn’t put it past her, though. I would not be surprised if we found out she was involved. In this specific situation, though, I think it was all him. Totally doesn’t mean she wasn’t planning that very second to have him killed. It’s like the joke my pal Jeff told me about Kennedy’s killing. There were so many people out for him: the mob, the Cubans, the Republican hawks who didn’t want him to draw down Vietnam. So, his point is more ‘who wasn’t trying to kill Kennedy that day?”

Here is the thing, I am kinda obsessed with Courtney. I am in love her with, and reviled by her. I have written about her a lot, and I will admit to you I also have a nude photo of her on my phone which is just fantastic. She defines the term ‘hot mess’, and I also call her lovingly ‘the original Charlie Sheen’.

Is the ’27 Club’ a real thing, or just a perfect example of confirmation bias?

Yes, it’s a real thing. Now, let me clarify… I am not saying more rock stars die at 27 than normal people. No. What I am saying is that when it comes to rock stars dying… there is overwhelming numbers that show it happens at 27 years old. Believe it or not, I have a whole web site just about this. I have been fascinated by this since high school. That was 25 years ago, and it keeps happening. I never could find a good site that just focused on this phenomenon. Plus, I truly believe I know more about rock music that most folks alive… so who better than me to tackle it.

It’s called ‘Remember the 27’. It’s cool, you should check it out if you are a music person. I take a look at what I consider the top 5 reasons why this might be happening… and then drill down on each one.

Brian Jones (from the Rolling Stones)… his death was listed as ‘death by misadventure’. You don’t know the name, which is a shame. He wrote their best early stuff – Paint it Black, Ruby Tuesday, Mother’s Little Helper. He drowned, and everything about it is suspicious… but we’ll likely never know… since it was prolly 50 years ago. His sacrifice may have been worth it, though… as we have the term ‘death by misadventure‘ in the lexicon now.

What rock star death hit you the hardest?

Initially, as in “I just can’t believe that happened. I am still waiting for someone to tell him it was a mistake” – Chris Cornell. Over a lifetime, though, Jerry Garcia. Thing is, I wasn’t that impacted when it first happened because I was mad at him. We saw them on their last tour, and it was terrible. So terrible we walked out, which I had never done at a Dead show before. Basically, when it happened, I wasn’t even a tiny bit surprised. However, the sadness has compounded over the years. I think he was the greatest guitarist we had.

Who is the rock star that you are most surprised isn’t dead? Difficulty challenge – other than Keith Richards. Don’t be so obvious, man!

Courtney. She doesn’t just love drugs, she seems to have a lot of emotional and narcissistic tendencies. I would bet her mentality about drugs is that they kill weaker people. She also seems to possess all kinds of impulse control problems. When she goes, it will be like Weiland. We won’t be surprised… except for maybe how she lasted as long as she did. I am pre-mourning her death in anticipation of the inevitable.

also, honorary mention on the ‘how is he still alive’ definitely goes to Slash.